Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Ancient Sites

Ancient Sites / Devil / Legends / Standing Stones

The Rudston Monolith

Standing in the Norman churchyard of All Saints Church, the Rudston Monolith is the highest standing stone in Great Britain at 7.6m (25ft) with a 5m circumference and an estimated weight of 40 Tonnes.

An experiment run by William Strickland in the 18th century suggests the stone may extend underground to a similar depth as it high above ground.

Ancient Sites / Festivals / Folklore / May / Wells

Drummers Well, Harpham

The drumming well located near to the church is reputed to foretell death in the family of St Quentin. The folklore relates to a story about a fourteenth century drummer called Tom Hewson, who was accidentally knocked down the well by a St Quentin squire. His mother put a curse on the family predicting that the sound of drumming from the well would predict death in the family.

Ancient Sites / Apparitions / Burial Mounds / Hauntings / Occult

Knebworth House

Knebworth has a number of legends and ghost stories, it was home to Sir Bulwer Lytton, the Victorian author with an avid interest in the occult. He was certainly involved with many people who were major players in occult thought from that time, including Eliphas Levi, the famous French Magus who visited Knebworth on several occasions.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Devil / Folklore / Giants / Legends

The Six Hills, Stevenage

The six hills which occupy prominence in the town are tumuli or Round Barrows dating from the Bronze Age. According to legend the hills are spade fulls of earth taken from Whomerly wood and thrown at the town by a giant (or the Devil) intent on destruction. His last shot went well off mark and knocked the steeple off Gravely Church two miles away.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity

Royston Cave

Underneath the streets of Royston, below the ancient Icknield way lies a secret cave, rediscovered in 1702 and dating back perhaps a thousand years. The cave, which is a bell shaped hole carved from the solid chalk, has a multitude of early Christian carvings depicting saints and religious scenes.

Ancient Sites / Devil / Earth Works / Legends

The Devil’s Dyke

Two giant earthworks named the Devil’s Dyke and the Slad, enclose and area of around 40 hectares to the South of St Albans. The area was excavated in 1932 by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and the ditch was found to have had an original depth of nearly thirteen metres making it a huge undertaking.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Fairies / Folklore / Legends / Mermaids / Wells

St Ethelbert’s Holy Well

Around 794AD, King Offa of Mercia demanded the head of the Christian King Ethelbert of East Anglia whilst he was making arrangements to marry Offa’s daughter. Not far from the location of Marden Church the young king was assassinated and his body hidden. After rumours of Ethelbert’s ghost being seen in the marden area, Offa asked the Pope for absolution.

Ancient Sites / UFO Sightings / UFOs

Hartshead Pike

Hartshead Pike serves as a focal point in the Oldham landscape, visible from miles around with unbroken views across 4 counties. This has been a beacon hill through antiquity.

Ancient Sites / Druidism

Pots and Pans

Pots and Pans above Greenfield, was once thought to have been a Druid place of worship, and old maps mark the site of a ‘Druid’s Altar’. Just where the Druid’s Altar was is unclear, but it is generaly believed to be the rounded depressions found on top of the giant boulders of Millstone grit (the actual pots and pans) on the crest of the hill.